The Cowgirl and the Know it All
by Crazysnakelover
Summary: When Jessie has a nightmare in the toybox, she finds comfort in an unlikely toy. First Toy Story fic FRIENDSHIP ONLY set between toy story 2 and 3. Disclaimer, I dont own Toy Story


**Just a little story I thought of after reading, "****We had nothing in common till now" written by** **xLovelyWonderx. If you like this one than go check out that one, it's cute. One of my favorite things to do it takes two characters that don't share much screen time together and give them a moment. No Romance, just fluffy friendship ;) **

The Cowgirl and the Know it All

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"Mom! Mom can I sleep over at Dan's house tonight? Please, please, please!" Andy's voice could be heard all throughout the house. He came home from school that day practically bursting with excitement.

"It's not a school night, so I guess its all right," his mother replied.

A loud squeal of excitement could be heard, obviously it came from Andy, "Thanks mom!"

"Go upstairs and pack, then I'll drive your over there."

"Ok!" Andy stomped up the stairs two at a time, bust into the bedroom, and started stuffing clothes into his backpack.

He was finished packing in almost three minutes, then mom came into the room, "Got all your stuff ready?" she asked.

"Yep, can I bring my toys?" Andy asked excitedly.

"Not all of them hun, just bring Buzz and Woody. That should be enough."

"Aww, all right," Andy agreed with a heavy sigh, then grabbed the old cowboy and space doll that were lying on his bed, and threw them into his backpack.

"And I want all your other toys put in the toy box, I'm going to come in and sweep tonight," his mother added.

"Yes mom," Andy replied then obediently tossed all his toys into the wagon toy chest, leaving out the few toys he kept on the shelf. A few minutes later he left, and the house went silent.

Jessie the yodeling cowgirl felt her anxiousness build as she lay in the dark toy chest. She was never comfortable in the dark, since her long time in storage. Sure she and Bullseye had lived with Andy for several months, and most would think that she should be over it by now. But it's hard to forget that claustrophobic feeling of being in a dark place, and never seeing the light. Woody and Buzz always helped; Woody was always there to comfort her, and Buzz was the perfect night light.

Andy usually slept with one or the other of them at night, so she always had one of them with her in the toy box. Rarely was she ever in the toy box without them, now was the first in… it was the first time. She had been living at Andy's long enough, and put in the toy box enough times to be able to stay in there without flipping out. Lord knows she'd been picked on enough because of this fear. She'd never hear the end of it, if anyone found out she was _still_ having problems.

Idle chat went though the toy chest, until they heard Andy's mom come in to clean up the room. After she was finished, and they heard her leave, the chit chat started again. Before long all the toys slowly fell asleep.

It was in this quiet darkness that made it worse for Jessie. It brought back the memories of storage, all dark, all silent. The prospector wasn't all that talkative, and Bullseye obviously couldn't talk. She tried to relax herself enough to fall asleep, and eventually fell into a fitful nightmare full of darkness and memories of being in storage. Eventually the dream ending with her being locked in a small chest to be left in for all eternity.

The cowgirl doll awoke with the feeling of deep anxiety deep in her chest. Her breath had all been taken from her lungs, if she had a heart beat it would be going into overdrive. She desperately tried to take deep breaths that would satisfy her lungs, but it never came. It was like there was no air in the chest, and she was suffocating. Jessie looked around, everyone was still asleep, how she wished Buzz or Woody was there to help her calm down. Woody always knew exactly what to say, and Buzz's glow was always a comfort.

Slowly the walls started closing in on her, a misty white fog formed in her vision. She had to get out of there _now!_ The red haired doll jumped up and pushed the lid of the toy box open. Pale moon light tinted the room blue. It wasn't much, but still enough to comfort her, just a little. Her breath evened out when she got out of that cramped toy chest, though her nerves were still on edge.

The moonlight brought comfort to the cowgirl, so she climbed onto the desk by the window where the light shined the brightest. She tip toed across the desk, only to make sure that she didn't wake Hamm who was currently snoozing away on the desk where he was always kept. The only problem was that she didn't see the pencils scattering the desk and slipped. Jessie fell forward, making a loud thud followed by a groan. This caused the piggybank to jerk awake.

Hamm looked around to find out what caused him to wake from his peaceful slumber, and lying before him was the feisty, energetic cowgirl. "What are you doing up?" he asked giving her a glare.

"S-Sorry, just come to look out the window," Jessie replied looking away embarrassed.

"Well keep it down, so I can sleep will ya," Hamm shot before closing his eyes and trying to fall back into the fibulas dream he was having.

Unfortunately sudden insomnia came over the china piggybank, no matter how hard he tried to drop off, sleep seemed to be far away. He kept opening an eye to stare at Jessie. The cowgirl doll was curled up several inches from where he was laying, just staring out the window. For some reason he just couldn't find sleep with her sitting there, especially when she seemed so uncomfortable. After ten minutes he cracked an eye again only to see that the red head was shivering.

"Um… are you all right?" Hamm asked.

"Yes," Jessie replied quickly, so quickly that it was obviously a lie.

The pig mentally shrugged it off and closed his eyes again. He wasn't even sure why he even asked that, it's not like the two of them were even close. Why should he care if she's all right or not? He had barely closed his eyes for ten seconds before her voice spoke again, strangled and choking. "N-No I'm not," this was followed by the sound of a very soft sob escaping from her lips.

Oh great, if there was one thing the know it all pig didn't know about, it was how to deal with a crying female. Why him? Why couldn't she go sobbing to some other toy? "Well… what's the matter?" he asked hoping that maybe she would just say it was nothing then go back to bed.

Just his luck, she decided to be truthful, "I… I had a nightmare…"

Dear Lord, could she be anymore childish. Given he did know about her issues with the dark, she'd been in storage for a long time which traumatized the poor girl. Though he personally thought that this fear of the dark was a childish fear that she really needed to get over, seriously she'd been living with Andy for months now, he tried not to give her a hard time about it. Many of the toys in the room ridiculed the cowgirl for it, though he was decent enough to keep it to himself.

"Well you don't need to worry about it anymore. It's just a succession of images that pass through the mind. Nothing that can harm you," Hamm replied smartly.

Jessie gave the piggybank a confused look, her eyebrows furrowing inward. "In other words, it was just a dream; its over now, can't scare you anymore. So there's really no reason to fret over it," Hamm continued wanting to get this pep talk he somehow dragged himself into, over with as soon as possible.

"Oh…" Jessie replied uncertainly, wiping a stray tear that fell from her eye and sniffled loudly.

Oh great, he was probably making her feel worse. The china pig mentally kicked himself for being so tactless, and tried to think of something to say so he could make her feel better. Thankfully she decided to speak up, "Well… if it was all just a bunch of pictures floating around in my head, or however you said it, why do you still became scared from it?"

"Because dreams produce emotion also, including fear; so it's ok for you to be scared when you first wake up. Everybody's scared, but then you realize that it all wasn't real and just forget about it."

The cowgirl doll looked quite impressed, "Wow, you sure know a lot about this," she commented.

A feeling of big headed pride surged through the pig's porcelain body. He couldn't help but smile smugly, "Well of course I do, being up on this shelf all day I see stuff no one else does." If Hamm had laid it on any thicker, it would have been paste.

Jessie continued to stare at him with interest. She did detect the smug pride in his voice, but just talking with someone about anything at all was making her anxiety go down. "Really, what do you see that we don't?" She asked.

"Well I see everyone's trash being put out," Hamm replied, and Jessie gave him a look.

"How does that give you knowledge?"

"Well for example, when someone throws out a VCR set that they bought four months ago that means the particular brand isn't a very good one. Couple years ago, I saw the Johnsons bring home a Sony VCR, and they still haven't thrown it away, which shows that it's a good one. Then there's the Jamasons across the street, which put a special lock on there fence to keep the dog in. I saw them go through many, many different locks to keep that dog in, and this one they got now is seems to be the best…"

As Hamm continued his long speech about how much he knew, Jessie listened with interest. But after awhile she felt feeling of sleep tug at her fibers, only the know it all piggybank didn't seem to be anywhere near ending. I guess once you got him started there was no turning back.

To get into a more comfortable position, she scooted closer to where he stood and leaned her back against his belly's side. This made him stop and look at her, "Keep going, I'm still listening," Jessie replied with a tired yawn.

The pig shrugged, then continued his speech, which had turned toward his knowledge of music from what he hears coming from peoples cars that pass by. For some reason the sound of his voice brought comfort to the cowgirl. It was like knowing she wasn't all alone. Just listening to him brought her closer and closer to dream land. It wasn't that she thought he was boring, it was actually very interesting. But she was so tried and weak from all the stress of the nightmare, his voice was like a lullaby.

"So just by looking at what people put in there yard sales, shows me that-" Hamm stopped short of his speech when he noticed that his audience was no longer awake. Jessie was curled up next to his side fast asleep. "Well if I was that boring you should have just said stop," Hamm continued bitterly.

But as he stared at the cowgirls delicate features, a soft smile displayed her lips, he realized that she was sleeping peacefully without fear or nightmares. Maybe he didn't bore her to sleep, "When did I become a therapist," he asked himself, but couldn't stop the soft smile form on his lips. With a light shake of his head, the china pig closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

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_SNAP-SNAP _Hamm was jostled awake, as a blinding flash met his eyes, "Wha-What's going on?" he asked squinting his eyes to what had woken him. Jessie who was still in the same spot had woke up also, and was currently rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Aww, it's a Kodak moment," Mr. Potato Head was in front of the two with a camera in his hands, ans a knowing smirk on his face. Many other toys were behind him, all chuckling behind there hands/paws/whatever's. "You two looked so cute all cuddly together," the spud continued.

Jessie and Hamm looked at each other in horror, and then quickly scooted away from each other. "Just wait until we show Buzz and Woody, they'll get a kick out of this," Slinky commented mischievously.

Hamm glared at them all, "Potato Head, gimme the camera," he ordered firmly.

"Not in this lifetime chum," the plastic potato replied running away with the camera, and Hamm close behind him.

"They're never going to let him hear the end of this, are they?" Jessie commented to Bo who was standing closest to her.

"Nope," she replied with a giggle.

The end

Thanks for reading.

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**I know VCR's are a thing of the past, I'm sure there are some kids that don't even know what they are. But if you think about it this time setting is still with Andy which means its not long after the second movie, which when the movie came out DVD's didn't even exist yet. Hope you enjoyed it.**


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